Russellville’s Planning Commission will start the year off one member short after an existing commissioner pulled his bid for re-appointment.

Nimesh “Nick” Patel was one of three re-appointments to the commission expected to be voted on by the City Council at its Dec. 15 meeting.

Aldermen, however, were informed hours before the meeting Patel had withdrawn his name from consideration.

Patel’s decision came a day after city officials received an email from Alderman Paul Northcut expressing concern about the re-appointment of the three commissioners, although Northcut only mentioned Patel by name. In his email, Northcut noted “problems we have had with the Hispanic Nightclubs on S. Arkansas” and “more importantly — how close the city came to allowing a homosexual club to open in downtown Russellville (sic),” although a business permit application for the venue was withdrawn and was never considered by city officials.

“Based on the past actions of that commission I don’t have a lot of confidence in the way that they have done their job,” Northcut wrote.

The Planning Commission examines issues relating to city zoning and development codes. Commissioners vote only to recommend approval or deny zoning-related requests and permit applications before those items are considered by the City Council.

Patel confirmed Northcut called him, but said he did not receive the email in question (see accompanying box for a complete copy of Northcut’s email) and could therefore not speak to whether Northcut accurately relayed their conversation. He declined to comment further on the matter other than to say after consideration of the matter and discussing it with his family, he withdrew from consideration for re-appointment for personal reasons.

Exactly what was said during the conversation between Patel and Northcut is unclear, and Northcut declined to respond to questions about the matter after refusing to speak with a reporter in person or via telephone and requesting questions be posed to him only via email.

“(Patel) said he had had some phone calls that were not favorable toward him being there, and he just decided it would be in his best interest not to,” Eaton said.

Patel’s performance on the board has been one of quality, Eaton said, adding he received positive feedback on Patel’s performance from other commissioners and city officials. According to Eaton, Patel took time to research requests that came before the commission and would often go out to examine sites in person.

“That’s what we want the commission to do,” he said. “We want them to look at what’s being asked for and say, ‘Is this a good fit?’ Does this meet our guidelines, No. 1, and if it doesn’t, is there some way to maybe adjust something or whatever that would make it that way?”

Eaton presents appointees to city boards and commissions to the council, and aldermen then vote to approve or deny the appointments.

After the city clerk sent an email to aldermen the afternoon of Dec. 15 advising them of Patel’s withdrawal, Northcut responded with an email that said, “I believe this is an answer to prayer. P.T.L.,” an acronym sometimes used as an abbreviation of the phrase, “Praise the Lord.”

Eaton said he will begin searching for a person to fill the vacancy on the Planning Commission that will be left after Patel’s current term expires at the end of the year, but will not rush the process.

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The text of Northcut’s email, sent Dec. 14 to other city officials:

“I want to express my reservations about re-appointment of at least one, maybe any, of the presently serving members of the Planning Commission.

“There have been several issues recently, going back at least the last couple of years, involving the Planning Commission and their oversight of what businesses are given the blessing of the city.

“In particular I am thinking about two examples of the PC recommending approval of businesses that are extremely detrimental to the community:

“1. The problems we have had with the Hispanic Nightclubs on S. Arkansas.

“2. And even more importantly — how close the city came to allowing a homosexual club to open in downtown Russellville back in the spring of 2010. (Reporter’s note: A business permit application for the venue Northcut refers to was pulled and was never considered by city officials.)

“There are probably other examples of the lack of oversight, just poor judgment — or worse, which the present Planning Commission is responsible for, at least in part.

“All of this was brought to my attention when I received a phone call yesterday from a citizen that was very concerned with the re-appointment of Nick Patel in particular. The reason being that during the time we, the majority of the community, were working to prevent the homosexual agenda, and other such licentious enterprises, from getting a foothold here in Russellville — Mr. Patel expressed his belief that it would be wrong to try and keep them out; telling people that the city needed the tax money such businesses would bring in. So I called Mr. Patel personally to ask him about it. He told me that, ‘it was strictly a matter of business and that the question of morality was not something he was going to get into. If we don’t welcome this type of business, they will go somewhere else. So we should let them in.’

“I have not had the opportunity to discuss this with the other men that are up for re-appointment to the PC, so I cannot speak about their position. However, based on the past actions of that commission I don’t have a lot of confidence in the way that they have done their job. “I personally want more information about the folks we put on the PC before I give them my vote.

Fire Paul Northcut! enough said. This is sad, embarrassing and overall just rude. You, Paul Northcut are one of the reasons Christianity is loosing so much respect. It is a religion not a ticket from God to treat people like doggie doo.

Would be great if a reporter would look into Northcut's use of public autos, as to who pays his salary as a police officer, is he really trained to be carrying a gun, etc. He seems to have a lot of money for new fancy cars that are all tricked out with gaudy religious themed paint jobs and such.

Happy to report that the story done by the Arkansas Times on this issue has been picked up by the Dallas Morning News online. Russellville needs to stand up to Northcut and tell him his brand of Jesus-wrapped bullying and bigotry will not be allowed from the City Council!

“I want to express my reservations about re-appointment of at least one, maybe any, of the presently serving members of the Planning Commission.

“There have been several issues recently, going back at least the last couple of years, involving the Planning Commission and their oversight of what businesses are given the blessing of the city.

“In particular I am thinking about two examples of the PC recommending approval of businesses that are extremely detrimental to the community:

“1. The problems we have had with the Hispanic Nightclubs on S. Arkansas.

“2. And even more importantly – how close the city came to allowing a homosexual club to openin downtown Russellville back in the spring of 2010. (Reporter’s note: A business permit application for the venue Northcut refers to was pulled and was never considered by city officials.)

“There are probably other examples of the lack of oversight, just poor judgment - or worse, which the present Planning Commission is responsible for, at least in part.

“All of this was brought to my attention when I received a phone call yesterday from a citizen that was very concerned with the re-appointment of Nick Patel in particular. The reason being that during the time we, the majority of the community, were working to prevent the homosexual agenda, and other such licentious enterprises, from getting a foothold here in Russellville – Mr. Patel expressed his belief that it would be wrong to try and keep them out; telling people that the city needed the tax money such businesses would bring in. So I called Mr. Patel personally to ask him about it. He told me that, ‘it was strictly a matter of business and that the question of morality was not something he was going to get into. If we don’t welcome this type of business, they will go somewhere else. SO we should let them in.’

“I have not had the opportunity to discuss this with the other men that are up for re-appointment to the PC, so I cannot speak about their position. However, based on the past action of that commission I don’t have a a lot of confidence in the way that they have done their job. “I personally want more information about the folks we put on the PC before I give them my vote.

This isn't answered prayer as Alderman Chaplain Northcut calls it; this is a bully in action. Mr. Northcut, you should be ashamed of yourself, but you're probably not. You owe Mr Patel and the City of Russellville an apology. Furthermore, you should resign and go rail against the non-whites and sinners of the world from an un-elected post!